I learned early that a day job will keep you busy, but it will not always stretch you. If you want to move forward, you have to put in reps outside the clock. Not forever, not at the cost of your life, but long enough and often enough to build range.
I started in an agency. Fast pace, many clients, constant context switching. I worked late nights and some weekends because I wanted to get better. That is not a long term lifestyle and I do not recommend burning yourself out, but those seasons taught me how to ship, how to debug under pressure, and how to own the result. They also taught me to set better boundaries later. You can hold both truths: growth often requires extra effort, and health requires rest.
Why the 9 to 5 is not enough
Most jobs give you a narrow slice of the stack. You might write React all day and never touch DNS. You might live in a backend and never learn how your code gets onto a server. The market rewards people who can see across the system. Side projects and client work force you to do that because there is no one else to throw it to. You have to be the person who decides, configures, deploys, and then fixes it when something goes sideways.
The other reason is pace. Companies move at the speed of meetings. Your own projects move at the speed you choose. You can try a new tool tonight, see the limits, and move on. Those loops compound.
What moved the needle for me
Side projects made me dangerous in the best way. I built small tools for myself, then for others, and learned to ship thin slices. I said yes to freelance and consulting work, scoped clearly, and delivered. Working with real users teaches you faster than any tutorial.
I try new frameworks and libraries on purpose. Not to chase trends, but to learn patterns I can reuse anywhere. A weekend with a different router or ORM makes you a better thinker even if you never use it at work. I also dabble in new languages every year. Learning Go taught me about simplicity and tooling. Python reminded me to value readability. Even a few days in a lisp will change how you structure problems.
I make time for the unglamorous parts: deployment, monitoring, backups, and cost. If you have never set up hosting yourself, do it. Spin up a small stack on AWS and wire the pieces:
- IAM for least privilege access
- S3 for assets and backups
- CloudFront in front of static content
- Route 53 for DNS and simple records
- EC2 or Lambda for compute
- CloudWatch alarms so you know when things break
You will not become an infra engineer overnight, but you will stop treating the server as a black box. That confidence shows up in code reviews and interviews.
Writing helps too. Good docs are a force multiplier. Document what you build, even if the only reader is future you. The act of explaining forces clarity. It also builds a body of work you can point to when someone asks what you can do.
Guardrails so you do not burn out
Going above the baseline does not mean living in permanent crunch. I have done that. It is not worth it. Instead, pick seasons. Commit to six weeks of focused work on a side project, then take your foot off the gas for a bit. Set a hard stop most nights. Keep one day a week where you do not open the laptop.
Choose projects with clear endings. Ship a version 1 that solves one problem. Put a bow on it. If it has legs, iterate. If it does not, park it with pride and move on. Finishing things builds trust in yourself.
Protect your health. Sleep. Move your body. Eat real food. None of this is glamorous, but it is the foundation that lets you show up again tomorrow.
How to start this week
Pick one small thing that scares you a little and put a box around it.
- Add a payment flow to a toy app. Ship it to a test account.
- Try a language you have never used and solve one problem end to end.
- Deploy a tiny service on AWS. Write down every step so you can repeat it.
- Take a freelance brief you can deliver in a week. Be clear on scope. Communicate early.
- Join an open source project and fix one bug. Learn the contribution flow.
Then do it again next week. Momentum matters more than a perfect plan.
Never get complacent
I aim to be very good at what I do, but I try not to get comfortable. Comfort makes you sloppy. The world changes fast and new tools show up every month. You do not have to adopt them all. You do have to stay curious. Try things, take notes, keep what works, and let the rest pass by without guilt.
Extraordinary people go above the baseline at the right times. They prepare when no one is watching so they can deliver when it counts. They develop judgment about when to push and when to rest. That is the balance I am aiming for. Put in the work. Guard your energy. Keep moving.